Press releases

British Billionaire Jim Mellon Appointed Trustee of the Biogerontology Research Foundation

‍Jim Mellon

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Friday, June 23, 2017, London, UK: British billionaire Jim Mellon has been appointed as a member of the Biogerontology Research Foundation's Board of Trustees in the wake of publicly announcing his commitment to support research and investment into human longevity. Often referred to as the British Warren Buffett, Jim Mellon is well known for spotting major emerging trends early. Mellon made his wealth by investing in emerging markets throughout the 1990s.

“I believe that over the coming decade we will witness the most meaningful period of scientific discovery and advancement in human history. Breakthroughs are happening at an accelerating rate, and these breakthroughs are coinciding with a period in which the world's elderly population is growing at an unprecedented rate. This, I believe, will lead to the necessity of the longevity industry gaining prominence and growing into the world’s largest industry.

I am glad to support charitable scientific research foundations like the Biogerontology Research Foundation, the United Kingdom's oldest longevity charity, in its ongoing efforts to understand the fundamental cause of ageing at the cellular level and conducting public education and outreach on the importance of this underfunded field of science. Policy makers and government officials need to acknowledge that researching ageing is possibly the only solution to the pressures being placed on healthcare and pension systems globally.” said Jim Mellon.

After many years of research and investing in the life science sector, Jim Mellon announced his vision for the emergence of the nascent longevity industry at Master Investor, the UK’s leading investor show in March of 2017, which was attended by over five thousand investors and entrepreneurs. He has also announced the formation of a longevity investment company, Juvenescence Limited with the goal of investing in a portfolio of longevity-related start-ups.

“The rise of the longevity industry has been a long time coming. There have been hints of its dawn on the horizon for several years now in the form of very powerful lab results on healthspan extension in model organisms and continued progress in elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of ageing. The fact that several very well-funded longevity companies like Calico, Human Longevity Inc. and Unity Biotech, which collectively have garnered over $1 billion in funding, have emerged in just the past five years is a very strong indicator that the long-nascent longevity industry is becoming mainstream. And now, with the public pronouncements of support from very wealthy and well-respected investors like Jim Mellon, the feeling is that the age of longevity may indeed soon be upon us" said Dmitry Kaminskiy, Trustee of the Biogerontology Research Foundation.

Jim's 2012 best selling book "Cracking the Code" presented his vision of rapid growth in the life science industry. In his upcoming book, Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity, Jim and co-author Al Chalabi profile many academic and industrial laboratories, biopharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley tech companies relating to the emerging longevity industry. Juvenescence highlights promising technologies that are likely to generate substantial longevity dividends and create sustainable and highly profitable companies.

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“The Biogerontology Research Foundation is honoured to appoint Jim as a member of our Board of Trustees. Over the past few years he has expressed a keen interest in longevity, and has predicted the emergence of many now-strong markets throughout his career as an investor, entrepreneur and industry analyst. Myself and the rest of the board of trustees could not be more excited to work with Jim in galvanizing progress in ageing research and in the search for effective therapies to extend human lifespan in the coming months and years. We are eager to work with him to support research into the clinical translation of effective human healthspan extending therapies, combat age-related disease, avert the looming demographic timebomb associated with population ageing and help the age of longevity truly come of age at last.” said Franco Cortese, Deputy Director & Trustee of the Biogerontology Research Foundation.

About Jim Mellon

Jim Mellon is a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author of bestselling books Wake Up!, Cracking the Code and Fast Forward. He has built a worldwide business empire consisting of a variety of businesses, from hotel chains, banks, natural resources to online gaming. His upcoming book Juvenescence presents the profit opportunities ready for the taking in the emerging longevity industry. Jim has remained among the top 10% in the Sunday Times Rich List for a number of years. He is an honorary fellow of Oriel College at Oxford University and holds holds a master's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.

About the Biogerontology Research Foundation

The Biogerontology Research Foundation is a UK non-profit research foundation, public policy center, and think tank seeking to fill a gap within the research community, whereby the current scientific understanding of the ageing process is not yet being sufficiently exploited to produce effective medical interventions. The foundation funds and conducts research which, building on the body of knowledge about how ageing happens, aims to develop biotechnological interventions to remediate the molecular and cellular deficits which accumulate with age and which underlie the ill-health of old age.

Addressing ageing damage at this most fundamental level will provide an important opportunity to produce the effective, lasting treatments for the diseases and disabilities of ageing, required to improve quality of life in the elderly. The BGRF seeks to use the entire scope of modern biotechnology to attack the changes that take place in the course of ageing, and to address not just the symptoms of age-related diseases but also the mechanisms of those diseases.